This invention relates generally to file systems for semiconductor memories.
Semiconductor memories, such as flash memories, include flash file systems that maintain a series of tables for each directory. The tables contain the contents of each directory, including files and other directories that are updated when the files and directories are added to and removed from the tables.
Reads and writes to a flash memory array tend to be relatively slow processes. Thus, each time data is accessed from the array, both the array and a file system may be accessed. Thus, to access the file, the file system must be accessed, the file located, and then the file accessed. This involves multiple reads which, over time, tend to be cumbersome and inefficient, especially for deep paths and for those directories that contain a large number of files.